"Settling New Criminal Law Is My Mission" ... "Spearhead for Dropping Indictments"

[Anchor]

Democratic Party Representative Kim Seung-won, nominated as the Minister of Justice, stated, "The urgent calling is to ensure the new criminal justice system takes root." Meanwhile, the People Power Party criticized Kim as the individual who took the lead in pushing for the withdrawal of the indictment in President Lee Jae-myung's case.

Reporter Son Hyeong-an has the details.

[Reporter]

Yesterday morning at the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee subcommittee.

Attending as a Democratic Party member of the Judiciary Committee, Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won said, "I bear a heavy sense of responsibility," and designated the settlement of the newly revised Criminal Procedure Act, which he had actively promoted, as his "calling."

[Kim Seung-won / Justice Minister Nominee: I believe that ensuring the new criminal justice system, the first in 70 years, takes firm root in South Korea is our most urgent calling.]

However, the People Power Party launched a fierce offensive, highlighting the fact that nominee Kim served as co-representative of the "Association for Dropping Indictments in President Lee Jae-myung's Case," which was launched last February, calling the appointment "a move to push through the cancellation of the president's trial."

[Jeong Jeom-sik / People Power Party Floor Leader: They have decided to entrust the chief ministry for trial cancellation to the spearhead of indictment withdrawal. This is a total rejection of the demand for state affairs reform.]

Within the People Power Party, claims also followed that nominee Kim "used to be a defense counsel for the Daejang-dong case."

The Democratic Party defended Kim, arguing that he is the right person to lead the transition of the criminal justice system.

They hit back at the claim that he was a "former Daejang-dong defense lawyer," calling it a "malicious political maneuver."

[Han Byeong-do / Democratic Party Floor Leader: Representative Jang Dong-hyuk has started spreading false facts that he is a former Daejang-dong defense attorney. This is fiction beyond fiction.]

Nominee Kim's side released a statement explaining that while it is true his name was listed on the defense team for Nam Wook's Attorney-at-Law Act violation case in May 2015, he resigned in July of the same year after meeting with him just once, and clarified that he has never worked as a defense counsel for the main Daejang-dong development corruption trial, which has been under investigation and trial since 2021.

---

Nam was indicted in 2015 on charges of receiving 830 million won from initial Daejang-dong developers under the guise of political lobbying and was acquitted the following year. However, regarding charges of conspiring with private developers like Kim Man-bae to illicitly acquire a total of 780 billion-won range in profits through the Daejang-dong development project, he was sentenced to 4 years in prison in the first trial last year, and an appeal is currently underway.

(Video by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan, Video Editing by Yu Mi-ra, Design by Lee Jong-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.